How to Win at Biostim
Developments in and thoughts on the seaweed biostimulant market
Biostimulants are certainly one of the most vibrant parts of the seaweed industry right now. Many hopes are pinned on continued strong market growth. Produced in more than 40 countries, no other seaweed product is quite as global.
One thing that jumps out: some of the biggest seaweed producing nations in the world are absent: Japan and Chile each have one company, South Korea has zero, as does Indonesia for now.
Having said that, clearly many others are betting on biostim. Why?
In Europe and the US, it’s about volume. Biostimulants from wild harvested seaweeds are a successful business already. The hope is that biostimulants from cultivated seaweeds can break through, so growers can access a bigger market.
In the tropics, on the other hand, it’s about value. Biostimulants can offer a higher price point for tropical cultivated seaweeds and allow for a diversification away from ever-tighter carrageenan consolidation.
For the Island states in the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, it’s first and foremost about trying to deal with harmful algal blooms. And for nonprofits funding research, it’s about reducing the carbon footprint of fertilizers.
Our soils need a lot of help. Seaweed biostimulants are one solution for soil health and crop power in a basket of options. So here is an update to keep you abreast with the developments in this product category.
New products
Temperate species
In the past year or so, a number of companies have come out with a biostimulant from cultivated sugar kelp: Atlantic Mariculture (UK), Câr-y-Môr (UK) and Kelpinor (Norway - a blend with Ascophyllum). Trials are underway for Greenwave (US, partnership with AgriSea NZ), Kaly (UK) and Algapelago (also UK!).
Preliminary results are promising. In one trial with drought-stressed tomatoes, sugar kelp did better than Ascophyllum, while another found protection against microbial diseases, although with potential tradeoffs in growth.
Sugar kelp processing remains an engineering challenge, but progress has been reported in both cutting and process flow for biostimulants.
Macrocystis is the other cultivated temperate seaweed now being turned into biostimulant, with both Kelp Blue and Cascadia Seaweed coming out with a product. Chile’s PatBio started with wild harvested Macrocystis, Ulva and Durvillaea, but is now adding cultivated seaweeds. Last year PatBio was acquired by the Italian SICIT Group.
Cosmopolitan species
With rising sea levels, soil salinification is a pressing issue in The Netherlands. Ulva biostimulant used to protect potatoes from increased salt stress has seen great success (25% boost in production).
Tropical species
Brazil has recently begun growing Kappaphycus. While the plan was to create a domestic carrageenan industry, all of the seaweeds so far (100 tons in 2022) have gone into the production of biostimulants, which offers higher prices and does not need the extra drying step as it is processed fresh. At least 8 different companies are active (the ninth, Oceana Minerals, uses Lithotamnium).
New products are out from SOS Carbon (Dominican Republic), ClimaCrew (India), Rhodomaxx (Malaysia) and Bionema (UK but using Sargassum), among others. Congratulations for a successful fundraise to Algas Organics (St Lucia) and Sealife Organics (Mauritius).
Is the market opportunity big enough?
According to The Nature Conservancy and Bain, the seaweed biostimulants market is about $1 billion today, requires about 250,000 to 500,000 tons of seaweed per year, is expected to grow at 13% per year, and could demand 500,000 to 1 million tons by 2027. That would make it roughly a $2.5B market in 2030, covering about 1% of all global farmland.
Beyond farming, sports pitches are a growing market for seaweed biostimulants according to one entrepreneur doing a roaring trade among top-tier football clubs. Consider the fact (this will shock you to your core) that the United States has more golf courses than McDonald’s outlets: some 16,000 golf courses use 5.6 billion liters of water a day and are collectively treated with 100,000 tons of fertilizer a year. An opportunity for biologicals to turn an environmental disaster into a slightly less awful environmental disaster.
Yet not everyone is convinced: some seaweed entrepreneurs see the market as too crowded, both within the segment (175 producers and counting) and as part of a bigger biostim market that includes a wide range of other substances.
It certainly doesn’t help that it takes a while for companies to prove their product works. For instance, it took Sea6 Energy 8 years to work out the science around their product and they claim to now do around $10M in revenue from their biostimulant. PatBio (vide supra), had some 300 customers and $5M revenue after nearly a decade.
5 million is nothing to scoff at, especially with PatBio claiming 30% growth rates, but for those looking for quick wins, deep markets and huge volumes, biostimulants might not be enough.
How to win at biostim
Explaining how biostimulants work as a whole is impossible as every single one has a different mode of action, not only because of the active molecules involved but also because of the different ways they are processed. A lot of uncertainty remains with unpredictable results as a consequence, not helped by the deliberate obfuscation of some biostimulant companies, ranging from the mild (field trial finagling, repackaging the same product in different concentrations under different names) to the downright scammy (selling product that does not contain any seaweed at all).
Ultimately, to this observer at least, only a better understanding of the products themselves as well as the soils they impact can help biostimulants break out of the biologicals niche and into the mainstream. Which brings us back to that common seaweed chorus: more science is needed.
So which companies will manage to stand out in a sea of choice and confusion? It might just be those who
patent their active ingredient, nail down how it works (molecular priming), and deliver consistency across different crops, soils and climates;
broaden how they measure performance beyond crop growth to include soil physicochemical and biological properties and plant health markers;
couple advanced soil testing with large datasets on the soil microbiome to recommend farm-specific tailored inputs;
can retain full bioactivity in powdered or granulated form, instead of shipping water all over the world;
start to acknowledge the potential biotic stress resistance of biostimulants, and battle Big Ag and regulators to either broaden what a biostimulant is or take the extra step to register as a pesticide.
What do you think?
Dear Steven,
Thank you for your article, which is insightful!
Shunsuke
Thank you for an interesting summary. I’d like to see more in depth field trial data.